I'm scared to return to Nigeria – man who started Biafra movement with Kanu cries out

- A Nigerian man claiming to be a leader of the pro-Biafra movement who is detained in Norway may be deported to Nigeria

- Lotachukwu Okolie said he is the leader of IPOB in Norway

- He claimed to have come to Norway after escaping from prison in Nigeria in 2004

- He said he is scared to return home because of his position on Biafra

Lotachukwu Okolie, who claims to be a leader of the pro-Biafran movement, said that he is due to be "illegally deported" from Norway to Nigeria, where he fears his life will be in danger because of his activities.

In an interview with the IB Times UK Okolie said that he is currently being detained at the Trandum Detention Centre and he believes he will be deported to Nigeria on 9 March.

"I have been here at the deportation centre for more than one year and I already told them that instead of being deported, I will commit suicide here," he said.

"I am scared of going back to Nigeria because I am a Biafran leader here in Norway and Nigeria. The Nigerian embassy [in Sweden] does not want to give me travel documents. I am tired of the politics, I am not a criminal, I am an activist. I am still suffering every day."

The pro-Biafran activist claimed he left Nigeria in 2004 after being supposedly tortured in a jail. According to his friend Okolie was arrested in Nigeria due to his activism and broke out from the Oko prison in Edo state in 2004.

He became the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra in Norway in 2013.

The source also claimed that after Okolie organised a pro-Biafran conference in Oslo in August 2014, he was contacted by some Nigerians living in Norway who warned him to stop his activities.

"These individuals demanded Okolie should stop campaigning for Biafra restoration because the Nigerian embassy in Stockholm is aware of him escaping Oko prison," the source added that Okolie was then arrested. Okolie claimed that he had been visited several times at the detention centre by representatives of the Nigerian embassy in London, who he said told the Norwegian police that he was an enemy of Nigeria.

Okolie told reporters that he began the pro-Biafran movement with Nnamdi Kanu, the Radio Biafra director and head of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), who is currently in DSS custody and standing trial on six counts of treason in Nigeria. The two leaders no longer work together.

The Norwegian immigration service declined to comment on the case, saying they never provide information before a deportation has taken place.